I recently purchased this bike. It starts right up and idles great. However, while riding the motorcycle, it sputters, backfires, hesitates and feels very sluggish when accelerating. just not running 100%.
The guy i got it from said he cleaned and tuned the carbs and had no issues prior to me buying it. i've tried so far, new gas and some "HEET" additive to maybe remove any condensation.
Any advise would be great!

Good choice of bike, I have the same!
Is it an early bike with points? If so this could be the problem (I can give you advice on setting them up if needed).
Check the simple things first. Take your plugs out and check their condition and colour. You want to see a biscuit brown colour. Are any wet or sooty? Are they the correct NGKB8ES plugs? Also check the plug caps. Take them off (they unscrew) and check for corrosion. Repace with new ones if they look bad.
Charging issues can also cause problems, so check that the system is healthy. Put a meter accross the battery, with the bike running, slowley increase the revs and check for a voltage increase to around 14volts dc.
These bikes have a bullet proff engine, its often electrical issues that let it down.

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Hi The dealership are right but there are ways of dealing with the problem that don't require loads of cash. I had a similar problem with a Suzuki SV some years ago. i researched the problem on the web and spoke to a few bike performance places fuel goes off and causes all manner of problems with fuel injection and carbs.

I cured my problem by get a couple of bottles of injector and carb cleaner for petrol.engines you simply pour it into the tank and ride. I used Comma Petrol Magic (about £6 here in the UK) filled to nearly full tank poured the contents of 1 bottle into the tank and rode around after a few miles and a few small backfires I found the bike was performing much better and idle was nearly normal. I use this product every couple of months (normally ½ a bottle to a full tank) bike rides great. Hope this helps.

If this is a new condition and you've not worked on the bike recently, I'd try a dose of StarTron in the gas tank. It will eat the sludge that grows in fuel systems exposed to gasohol. Put it in the tank, ride a few miles to get it into the carbs, and then let it sit overnight. It has special enzymes in it that do the job. Seafoam is a good product but is not designed to clear bacterial sludge.

Hi if you have checked HT leads plugs my next step would be to change fuel and air filters. I had a similar problem with a bike a little while ago a torned out to be the fuel filter. Hope you get it sorted

The shop who sold you the exhaust should have given you some indication, but if the bike starts and runs fune and revs clean through the rev range, it may not need rejetting.
hesitation,backfiring,uneven idle, hard start, can all be symptoms of incorrect jetting.
If it is lean, you can sometime diagnose this by using the choke.

you didnt mention anything to do with the carbs so try some "Sea foam".... purchase at Autozone ($10) pour 1/3 can to two gallons fuel and drive it around for a good 10 to 15 miles and get on it once in awhile, ride safe..if the carbs are dirty or clogged... they wont be after your ride..there might be a little hesitation your first couple of miles till it starts to work..it took my bike 10 miles before it cleared out..bump start your bike if you have to to get it going and keep it going till it clears up.

your low speed jets are stopped up ,the carbs need cleaning, go to walmart a buy some SEAFOAM, poor it in your gas tank ,start it up on choke, and when it start ot clear up take it off of choke, or ride it until it clears up. after it starts running good get it synchronized

has good power and I got a great deal. I just ordered the Clymer manual (3-5 days delivery) so I am posting here to see if you folks have any quick suggestions. I noticed that the engine has a slight backfire/sputtering on deceleration and would take a while to warm up so I was thinking that it was running a little on the lean side. There was also some minor bluing on the exhaust. I took the plugs out last night and they appeared to be fouled. They were coated with carbon (not wet oil). Now I was thinking that it might be running a little rich. I cleaned the plugs and re-gapped at .0035. The engine seemed to warm up quickly but the it was still sputtering a little when downshifting and decelerating. What do you think this is? yeah backfiring while decelerating or downshifting can mean that you are running a little rich. I adjusted the idle screws on my bike to make that problem go away. Makes sense since as you slow down you normally release the throttle to virtually closed anyway...
I havent had that problem since. Except now I get backfiring while riding at highway speeds... methinks my carbs are being flooded and the float levels need to be adjusted.,,,